I'm a little late to the party here, (not Lassie's party! More on that below.) but I am loving Meg Daley Olmert's book, Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond. I'm not all that far along yet, but early on I was asking myself why in heaven's name this book has been sitting on my bed side table without being picked up. It should be no surprise that I'd love a book that combines research on behavior specific to our relationship with dogs, but the value added kicker is that she's such a good writer. In the second chapter she talks a lot about oxytocin and its role in social bonding. This is something I have talked about quite a bit, both in For the Love of a Dog, this blog and in my UW course on Human-Animal Relationships. Still, I learned some new things that I just love Read More
Archives for 2009
Willie & Sushi, Part II
Thanks to all of you who commented on the saga of Willie and Sushi. (And for those of you who haven't read the last post, my biggest training/behavior challenge at the moment is Willie's obsessive herding/stalking of my cat Sushi. I have started a new paradigm, which is to quietly and politely ask him to sit every time he looks at Sushi as if herding. Sounds simple, but so far it's the only "incompatible behavior" that seems to take him out of obsessive stalking mode.) Good news, although I hesitate to say that and doom myself with premature optimism. Does Willie ignore Sushi now? Oh no, oh my no. I truly don't believe that I will ever be able to completely turn around his interest and fascination bordering on obsessive/compulsive behavior around Sushi as a small, herdable animal. Read More
All “Incompatible Behaviors” are not Equal
Yeah well, this is something I know well, except, uh... how come it took me 2 years to figure it out with my own dog? Sigh. Here's the back story: As many of you know, my 3 year old BC, Willie, is both a joy and a challenge. He's joyful, incredibly responsive, the perfect dog for me to work on sheep, so reliable when working that I can let the sheep graze by the road, smart, fast and handsome. He also: * Came with projectile diarrhea (lasted 3 months, now completely solved). * Developed a bad shoulder early in life (now managed and partially healed, 'tho surgery still a potential). * Developed, also early on, a serious dog-dog aggression problem (partially treated and partially managed; plays with lots of other dogs, makes good, reliable decisions to keep himself out of trouble, but Read More
Thanksgiving
I am grateful for so much. I often spend time every morning thinking about what I am grateful for, but it seems especially meaningful at this time of the year. Here's just a few of the many things I have to be thankful for: I am grateful for Willie's smiling face and his pink tongue. I am grateful for the times when he sends his joy spinning out into the universe. I am grateful to have Lassie still in my life and to be anticipating her 16th birthday party. I am grateful for the black circle around her eye, and the little brush of black on her ear. I am grateful for Sushi's soft, creamy fur, her cat ears and her cat eyes and the fact that she is so very different from my dogs. I am thankful for every day that I get to spend with her. I am becoming more allergic to her every week, Read More
Lost Dogs
I'm inspired to write this after crying over the happy ending of a lost dog saga. A Golden bitch, who had been rescued from a hellish life in a puppy mill, had escaped from her new home and run into the woods. She was friendly and loving to everyone when she was in her foster home, but once she took off she became terrified of human contact. She was spotted numerous times, but ran off every time she saw someone, even from familiar dogs and her new, beloved human. The story reminds me of the time that I lost Tulip. It was only for nine hours, and it was one of the worst days of my life. She was old by then, with a severely weakened hindquarters, and I knew she'd never go running in the deep snow voluntarily. After hours of searching the woods in a snow storm, calling and stopping at Read More
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